Uses, &c. As a powerful anodyne and antispasmodic; in neuralgia and rheumatic pains,
and as an application to painful tumours. The plaster of the shops is usually deficient in extract. The following formula is in common use in the wholesale trade:—Lead plaster and resin plaster, of each 21⁄2 lbs.; extract of belladonna, 13⁄4 lb. This plaster must not be ‘pulled’ in water.
Plaster, Berg’s Antirheumatic. Syn. Gout paper; Emplastrum antirheumaticum, Charta antirheumatica, L. Prep. By digesting euphorbium, 2 parts, and cantharides, 1 part (both in powder), in rectified spirit, 10 parts, for eight days; adding to the strained liquid, black resin and Venetian turpentine, of each 4 parts; assisting the mixture by a gentle heat. Two or three coats of the product are successively spread over the surface of thin paper. Used in gout and rheumatism. (‘Anat. of Quackery.’)
Plaster, Black. Syn. Emplastrum nigrum. Prep. Mr Sharp’s black plaster was formed by boiling together olive oil, 13 oz.; wax, 21⁄2 oz.; carbonate of lead, 10 oz.
Plaster, Black Diach′ylon. See Court plaster.
Plaster of Black Pitch. Syn. Emplastrum picis nigræ, L. Prep. (Ph. Wirtem.) Black pitch, black resin, and beeswax, of each 8 parts; suet, 1 part; melted together. Rubefacient and stimulant.
Plaster, Blistering. See Plaster of Cantharides.
Plaster, Bree’s Antiasthmatic. Prep. From lead plaster, 1 oz.; olive oil, 1 dr.; melted together, and, when somewhat cooled, mixed with powdered camphor, 2 dr.; powdered opium, 1 dr., and at once spread on leather.
Plaster, Brown. Syn. Emplastrum fuscum, L.; Onguent de la mère, Fr. The butter, lard, oil, suet, and wax should be first melted together, and the heat gradually increased until they begin to smoke; the litharge is then to be sifted in, and the stirring and heat continued until the mixture assumes a brown colour; the pitch is next added, and the whole stirred for some time longer.
Plaster, Brown Diach′ylon. See Plaster of Galbanum.